Union Town: LA's Labor History

Los Angeles may be home to a powerful labor movement today, but it was not always that way. Los Angeles was once known as one of the most anti-union cities in the country. On this Labor Day weekend, we re-air Mike's 2024 interview with Kent Wong of the UCLA Labor Center. Kent walks us through the ups and downs of the history of organized labor in Los Angeles -- and reveals how victories and losses here shaped the labor movement nationally.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

UCLA Labor Center

Memory Work Los Angeles

Cal Federation of Labor - Labor History

LA Stories: Labor Movements in Los Angeles

Miguel Contreras: Legacy of a Labor Leader

Mike Garcia and the Justice for Janitors Movement

From Coors to California: David Sickler and the New Working Class

Voices from the Front Lines: Organizing Immigrant Workers in Los Angeles

From Mission to Microchip: A History of California Labor by Fred Glass (book)

What's Next, Los Angeles? is produced and hosted by Mike Bonin, in partnership with LA Forward.